16 JANUARY 1999, Page 24

History lesson

Sir: Just for the record, I feel obliged to make a couple of factual corrections to Robert Taylor's excellent article on the Labour party's amnesia about its own histo- ry (Labour's royal telegram', 2 January).

I am not the curator of the National Museum of Labour History. That post is ably filled by Catherine Rew. The Muse- um's director is Nick Mansfield, who held talks with Tom Sawyer on the party's centenary commemorations. I am the archivist/librarian at the Museum's archive and study centre and I have been in charge of the Labour party archives since 1978. I am, in other words, part of the Labour party's forgotten history.

Stephen Bird

National Museum of Labour History, Manchester